John Haynes of Honey Brook smokes a cigar in camp on Sunday at the 150th Gettysburg Anniversary Re-enactment. He saved the cigar specifically for the end of the anniversary events. (FOR THE LEBANON DAILY NEWS SHANE DUNLAP )

Among the items John Haynes packed neatly inside his A-frame tent at the Gettysburg Anniversary Committee re-enactment was a cigar he bought especially to commemorate the closing of the 150th anniversary.

"It's a really good Dominican cigar," he said, of the thick stogie he'd been storing in rags to keep it from drying out.

Haynes planned to smoke the cigar Sunday evening, the last day of the multi-day re-enactment and the end of 10 days commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The deputy director of Chester County's 911 center, Haynes said he only smokes during re-enactments. He portrays a Union captain, and it was common for officers on both sides during the Civil War to smoke cigars.

A cigar in the teeth of an officer could keep soldiers calm during battle.

You can't look scared when you're smoking a cigar," Haynes said.

And they could buy time for a man looking for the right words.

"It takes forever to light a cigar," he said, "so you can just keep pulling out matches" while you think of what you want to say.

The history of tobacco during the Civil War has spurred business at Gettysburg Cigar Co. since owner Gary Mohan opened the doors 10 years ago.

"Cigars and of course pipes were very, very much in use" during the 1860s, Mohan said.

Mohan, who said his ancestor Lt. Col. George Arrowsmith was killed during the first day of fighting in Gettysburg, explained that most officers smoked high-end cigars, often sent from home.

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Soldiers usually smoked whatever they could get ahold of.

Union soldiers had a better supply of coffee than Confederates, and Confederates had a plentiful supply of tobacco. They would "trade across the lines," Mohan said.

The camaraderie of cigar smoking was important for officers.

"It's kind of a thing, like celebration," Mohan said. "Even today during the Super Bowl, the coaches sit around smoking" after a win.

Mark Wrightstone, a re-enactor from Carlisle, Pa. who was camping with other Union re-enactors, said he is the only pipe smoker in his company. At the end of the day, he smoked and thought about the events that unfolded in Gettysburg 150 years ago. He called it "meditative."

On the Confederate side of camp at the Gettysburg Anniversary Committee re-enactment Sunday, a group of Rebel soldiers sat together talking.

Bob Tabor, of Narrows, Va., had a cigar in his hand, while Shawn Emmons, of Fincastle, Va., held a pipe.

"I think a good cigar does kind of clear your mind," Tabor said.

Emmons said that smoking wasn't only done with "victory in mind, but after every battle you would probably see men sitting around smoking."

Tabor said he would have liked for the cigar he was smoking to be a celebratory one. But, he noted, "I don't believe we're gonna win."